Story: Australia and New Zealand

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Different race relations (2nd of 2)

In this cartoon in the New Zealand Graphic in October 1900, the prospect of federation with the Australian colonies is likened to an ogre trying to lure Zealandia away from her companion, a Pacific Island youth. The belief that Australians had a very different attitude towards indigenous peoples than that of New Zealand Europeans, and that therefore federation would imperil race relations in New Zealand, was one factor in New Zealand's reluctance to join the federation. At the time New Zealand was often known as 'Maoriland'. In the cartoon New Zealand prefers a Pacific relationship (the Cook Islands became New Zealand territory in 1901) to one with her sister Australia, from whom she is separated by an ogre representing the legacy of convictism.